Joel Santo DomingoHP Z1 WorkstationThe HP Z1 workstation desktop is in a new category: the all-in-one professional workstation. It's powerful, easy to service, and has a beautiful 27-inch screen. If you know you need a workstation and are space constrained, the Z1 should be at the top of your shopping list.

The HP Z1 workstation desktop is in a new category: the all-in-one professional workstation. It's powerful, easy to service, and has a beautiful 27-inch screen. If you know you need a workstation and are space constrained, the Z1 should be at the top of your shopping list.

The HP Z1 is in a new category: the all-in-one professional workstation. It's powerful, easy to service, and has a beautiful 27-inch screen. It has ISV certifications, if your business needs to consider that for pitching projects. Even if certification isn't a consideration, the speed, accurate screen, and professional grade components will pique the scientist in you. If you know you need a workstation and are space constrained, the Z1 should be on your short list.

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Design and Features
The Z1 essentially looks like a large all-in-one desktop PC, which is to say it also looks just like a large-screen professional monitor. It's centered on a huge 27-inch LED-backlit IPS display with a 2,560 by 1,440 resolution. For comparison, the only other all in one desktop to match this resolution and size is the Apple iMac 27-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,999 list, 4 stars), which is aimed at some of the same audience (the graphics arts folk). The system is hooked up to a dual-hinged articulated arm, so it is easily adjusted for height and tilt. It can be tilted from horizontal (parallel to your work surface) to vertical, so it can accommodate workers who are used to drafting tables. With the size of the screen and the horizontal position, you can collaborate on a conference table or other group environment. The nice thing about this display compared to say the Samsung Series 7 (DP700A38-01) ($999.99 list, 4 stars), is that the Z1 has more than enough friction in its hinges to stay put at any angle. Even though you may think of all-in-one desktops as being one of the most rigid platforms, the Z1 is one of the most flexible systems out there in terms of usability. The system can be mounted on a VESA arm along with another 27-inch HP professional display for a very wide field of view. Perfect for looking at and working on a lot of data simultaneously.

The Z1 comes with an Intel Xeon E3-1280 processor, 16GB of fast DDR3 ECC memory, an Nvidia Quadro 4000M graphics card, Blu-ray writer, and two 300GB SSDs. The two SSDs are set up as individual drives, but you could set them up as a RAID array quickly using the pre-installed Intel utilities. As is, one drive acts as the C: drive, while the other is the data drive. If you're not interested in using the drives as a RAID array, configuring a 300GB SSD and a 1-2TB drive as a data drive would be a prudent course of action. The system doesn't have too much extra internal expansion space, but the components already there are easily swapped out for newer components. The four DIMM slots are filled, but you can replace the included RAM for up to 32GB. The two (filled) drive bays can hold 2.5-inch or both can be swapped out for a single 3.5-inch drive. The Quadro 4000M can be swapped out for another MXM card in the future. The system comes with an internal USB port for the wireless keyboard and mouse, saving one of the exterior ports for another peripheral. The external ports include four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire 400 port, audio, media card reader, Ethernet, and a two-way DisplayPort. The DisplayPort can be used with another external monitor for a dual monitor setup. The same DisplayPort can also be used as an input, so that the Z1's monitor can continue to be useful even seven years down the road after the internal components become obsolete. The system comes with 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless, so it can be used on most Wi-Fi networks. Some businesses use 5GHz channels to segment their wireless networks and to prevent interference with other 2.4GHz devices.

The workstation comes without too much extra pre-loaded software. Aside from a handful of HP utilities, webcam utilities, and optical drive utilities, the system comes with a Starter copy of Microsoft Office 2010. This is excellent, since you don't want any extra software like trialware getting in the way while you're trying to do your work. Speaking of work, since the Z1 is equipped with a Xeon processor and Quadro graphics, it's got plenty of the same ISV certifications as its Z-series tower brothers.

Performance
The Z1 is pretty quick, thanks to its Xeon E3-1280 processor and Nvidia graphics. It completes all of our tests faster than other single-CPU workstation systems, like the Lenovo ThinkStation E30 ($1,019 direct, 3.5 stars) and the former Editor's Choice workstation HP Z210 Small Form Factor Workstation ($2,173 direct, 4 stars). It's even got the moxie to outperform the dual-socket (dual CPU) Lenovo ThinkStation D20 ($9,344 direct, 4 stars), even though the D20's dual CPUs are much faster on the more esoteric tests like Cinebench. While the Apple iMac wins the 3D gaming tests, the Z1 is still faster overall. There are tasks that realize the benefit of a second processor, particularly rendering large data streams and scientific tasks, but for visual arts the Z1 is top notch. See our benchmark table for the specifics, but suffice to say that most moderate to heavy tasks will be dispatched quickly on the HP Z1 workstation.

The HP Z1 Workstation is, so far, a category of one. There aren't any other professional all-in-one workstations out there, with the closest being the Apple iMac 27-inch for the graphics arts crowd. The Z1's primary competition otherwise is a compact single-processor workstation with a large external display. The Dell Precision T1600 (4.5 stars) holds on to its Editor's Choice for single-processor workstations by virtue of its expandability, features, and pricing. That said, once we have an all-in-one workstation category, the Z1 will certainly will be the benchmark to which all others are compared to. In summation, if you know you will need workstation-class power and certification in an all-in-one form factor the HP Z1 is the way to go.

Joel Santo Domingo is the Lead Analyst for the Desktops team at PC Magazine Labs. He joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology...
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